


liability

by girlwritesthings



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (Ish) - Freeform, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, just a short twitter drabble prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlwritesthings/pseuds/girlwritesthings
Summary: Rey has a bad day and Ben is a good friend.Based on this prompt by@reylo_prompts:Rey can't sleep and is feeling pretty down so her and Ben take a trip to the beach at 4am where they look at the stars.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44





	liability

There’s a lot Rey loves about her new apartment but the thing she loves the most is that it’s a 7 minute walk down the street to Ben’s place.

Since quarantine began, Rey finds herself walking the familiar path to his apartment a lot more. Usually they spend the day working from home together in silence, her at the island in the kitchen and him a few feet away at the dining room table. He makes her coffee and she provides the croissants from the bakery that’s halfway between her place and his.

But today she had spent the day working from her apartment since she had a full day of zoom calls and she didn’t want to disrupt Ben’s day with her constant meetings.

At exactly 5:30pm, Rey had logged off her work laptop and poured herself a glass of wine. Or maybe two, she can never tell what’s considered a good amount of wine in those mason jars. She took her wine into the bathroom where she let the tub fill with steaming hot water, dropping some epsom salt and bubble bath in.

She thought that would be enough to forget about her day and relax. But all she could hear was her boss saying she was “not quite meeting expectations” and that her performance was “severely lacking.” Her head slipped below the surface of the water and when she emerged some 20 seconds later, she couldn’t tell the difference between the bath water and the tears streaming down her face.

Now it’s well after 11 and the anxiety from that call lingers, like tiny anchors dragging her down. 

She reaches Ben’s building and sees the living room light is still on so she pulls out her phone and calls him.

He answers almost immediately.

“Hey! I was just about to call, how was your performance review?” He sounds so confident in her, and the fissures in her heart crack a little more.

She ignores his question.

“I’m outside.”

A pause and then his head pops up at the window, peering down at her.

“Why? I mean- hold on I’ll come let you up.”

“No.” She hears him shuffling around, probably searching for his shoes, but at that he pauses. “I was thinking we could drive to the lake.”

He’s back at the window now and she can tell, even from this distance, that his brow is furrowed with worry.

“Rey, it’s almost midnight.”

She nods.

“And November.”

Another nod.

They stand like that for a moment, her out on the street and him from his second floor window, watching her.

“Please, Ben.”

And just like that she sees his shoulders relax and he nods.

“Sure, let me just grab a blanket.”

5 minutes later and they’re in his Jeep and Rey is fiddling with the aux cord while Ben drives. Within seconds Liability by Lorde is leaking through the speakers and Ben gives her a sharp look, but says nothing.

They drive up Lake Shore, taking the exit for the beach and Ben backs into a spot close to the edge of the sand. Rey climbs through the back, pushing the seats down and spreading out the blankets while Ben goes around the back, opening the hatch before crawling in.

It’s a full moon, and the light dances on the waves as they crash along the shore while they watch silently.

Rey pulls her knees to her chest, resting her chin on top while Ben leans against the side, no longer looking at the beach but at her. He can sense something is wrong, but he doesn’t ask and for that Rey has never loved her best friend more.

Eventually, she takes a deep breath and tells him.

“I’m under review at work.” The words catch in her throat and suddenly she’s crying. Again. Ben opens his mouth to say something but she continues on, needing to finish before she can’t. “I messed up some paperwork last week and this week I’ve just been off, forgetting things or taking too long to reply to an email and they said it’s ‘causing concern among management’. Apparently I need improvement.” 

Ben doesn’t say anything at first, just scoots across the back of the Jeep until he’s sitting next to her, his thighs pressed against hers, and his arms around her back. She leans into his chest and sobs.

“Hey, shhhh, it’s okay.” Ben murmurs into her hair.

She pulls back a little and looks up at him.

“But it’s not okay! That’s the point. What if I get fired, Ben? I can barely afford rent now and it was so hard to get this job and if I lose it what will I do-”

“You won’t get fired, Rey.” She starts to protest but he cuts her off by pressing her head back against his chest and her words are muffled against his sweater. “You won’t. You’re smart and capable and one bad performance review isn’t the end. And if it is then... We’ll figure it out.”

He says it so simply. As if they are a “we” who figures things out together. Not just two college acquaintances who happened to move to the same city after graduation and build a friendship out of sheer desperation and loneliness. Ben is her best friend. But they are not a “we”. 

“Ben, I can’t lose this job, not now. Not with an actual fucking pandemic going on. I just can’t. I’m nothing without this. Nothing.”

“Rey, you’re not nothing. Not to me.”

He says it with such conviction, she almost believes him.

And so she lets him hold her, her face against his chest and his lips tickling as he murmurs praises into her hair. Little by little he takes the pieces of her that had cracked and fallen apart since her call, and he puts them back in place. 

Slowly, building her back into a Rey that is worthy of his compliments. A Rey that can take on anything. A Rey that has been an underdog her whole life, but that never stopped her from fighting for what she deserves before.

Ben reminds her who she is and for that, she loves him a little more.

**Author's Note:**

> [I'm on twitter here](https://twitter.com/reyloanon)


End file.
